F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) CFO Edward Cooper Werner Sells 599 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• F5 CFO Edward Werner sold 599 shares for about $194,112 under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan, reducing his holdings by 17.36% to 2,851 shares.
• The CFO’s sale was part of a broader cluster of transactions in which seven F5 insiders sold roughly $7.2 million of shares; the pre-arranged plans may temper the significance of the sales.
• F5 reported quarterly earnings and revenue above analyst estimates, with revenue up 13.2% year over year, and approved a $1.5 billion share buyback. Shares traded down to $311.74 on Thursday.

F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) CFO Edward Werner sold 599 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $324.06, for a total transaction of $194,111.94. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 2,851 shares in the company, valued at $923,895.06. This represents a 17.36% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

F5 Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FFIV traded down $17.98 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $311.74. The company had a trading volume of 1,380,704 shares, compared to its average volume of 751,325. The company has a current ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. F5, Inc. has a 52 week low of $223.76 and a 52 week high of $483.30. The firm has a market cap of $17.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.88, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.07. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $425.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $363.56.

F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 27th. The network technology company reported $4.42 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.26 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $917.43 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $884.03 million. F5 had a return on equity of 21.00% and a net margin of 21.14%. F5's revenue was up 13.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $4.39 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that F5, Inc. will post 14.19 EPS for the current year.

F5 declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Tuesday, October 27th that authorizes the company to buy back $1.50 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the network technology company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Share repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Key Stories Impacting F5

Here are the key news stories impacting F5 this week:

• Negative Sentiment: Seven insiders, including F5’s CFO, CTOs and EVPs, sold shares in transactions dated November 3–4. The sales totaled about $7.2 million; several executives reduced their individual holdings substantially. The cluster of sales may weigh on sentiment, although the pre-arranged plans temper the signal. See the SEC filings: Read More., Read More., Read More., Read More., Read More., Read More. and Read More..

Institutional Investors Weigh In On F5

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of FFIV. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System grew its stake in shares of F5 by 14.0% in the 3rd quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 3,616 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,610,000 after buying an additional 443 shares in the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its holdings in shares of F5 by 41.8% in the 3rd quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 3,735 shares of the network technology company's stock worth $1,663,000 after buying an additional 1,101 shares during the last quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of F5 during the 3rd quarter valued at about $53,000. Machina Capital S.A.S. raised its position in shares of F5 by 58.9% during the 3rd quarter. Machina Capital S.A.S. now owns 5,216 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $2,322,000 after buying an additional 1,933 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lido Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of F5 by 15.7% in the 3rd quarter. Lido Advisors LLC now owns 6,736 shares of the network technology company's stock valued at $2,999,000 after acquiring an additional 914 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.66% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on FFIV shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of F5 from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $500.00 target price on shares of F5 in a research note on Wednesday, October 28th. Barclays restated a "mixed" rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Wednesday, October 28th. Piper Sandler downgraded shares of F5 from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $461.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday, October 28th. Finally, Evercore reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of F5 in a research note on Wednesday, October 28th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $443.00.

F5 Company Profile

F5, Inc NASDAQ: FFIV provides application delivery, security and traffic management solutions for enterprises, service providers and public-sector organizations. Its offerings are designed to help customers secure, optimize and manage applications and application programming interfaces (APIs) across data centers, private and public clouds, and edge environments.

The company's portfolio includes BIG-IP software and appliances, NGINX application delivery and web server technologies, and F5 Distributed Cloud services.

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